How to budget for your Wedding Favors

When it comes to working out how much your wedding favors will cost you in total, you could be excused for thinking only NASA could work out this one! When you first draw up your wedding budget you will probably have a section dedicated to your favors into which you are somehow supposed to apply a figure for items you haven’t even considered yet let alone looked at.

So how do you arrive at a realistic figure for your wedding favors? Here are a few tips to help you out:

At the beginning of your wedding budget you will need to research many different prices and wedding favors shouldn’t be any different. In fact they should be the easiest to price up as many favors fall into the same price bracket. Where most brides come unstuck is that they forget to add in the packaging, decorations, tags or stickers and most importantly the cost of shipping and local taxes.

The cost of these last two will vary depending on where you live and the vendor you purchase from. Taxes are something you find a definite answer for and as for shipping I recommend checking out the charges from two or three of the larger favor vendors and using an average of those.

Typically wedding favors will range in price from between $2 - $4 each. It is possible to buy favors cheaper than this, but in terms of setting your budget it is better to set a figure based on averages and not on what you hope to achieve. Packaging will vary from around $0.50 to $2 a piece for traditional types such as fabric bags and card boxes. It can be difficult to attach a price to your packaging as you haven’t chosen your favors yet and packaging is wholly dependant on the size and shape of your favors. As with the favors themselves I would use an average figure as a basis for your budget.

Take a look at your guest list and the total number of guests you would need to buy wedding favors for. Not everyone will be able to attend but as you don’t know how many will be coming you should consider everyone for now. Typically around 20% will decline your invitation although many couples will fill those places with other guests that they were originally only inviting to the evening party.

It is always best to work on a per head basis rather than a total figure, this ensures that you have enough money in the budget to purchase one favor, with packaging etc for each guest. Based on your average calculations you will probably come up with a figure of $3 for a favor and packaging, add to this an extra $1 to cover decorations, shipping etc and your budget will be $4 per head.

When totaled by your number of guests you will probably find a figure running into a few hundred dollars, however you should bear in mind that most favor stores offer discounts for big quantity purchases, many also offer free shipping if you order totals above a certain amount. Wholesalers can offer great discounts should you require a very large number of favors and of course you can always change your wedding favor for something cheaper.

Whatever you final total maybe remember that you need to budget a realistic figure from the start otherwise you could find yourself way short of the funds needed to actually purchase any kind wedding favor and in the quantities you require.